Jacqueline Sheehan

In this sequel to JS's first book Lost & Found, Rocky Pelligrino is still living on Peak’s Island off the coast of Maine with Cooper, the black Lab she rescued in the first book. Still healing from the death of her husband, it’s time for her to decide whether or not to return to her home in Massachusetts and her career as a psychologist on a college campus. Then a phone call from a stranger looking for her biological father sends her life into a tailspin. Could her husband have fathered show more a child and not known about it? On an impulse, she invites the girl to come and stay with her.

Natalie has recently turned 18 and been released from the foster care system. She claims that when she left the foster care system, she asked to see her records and found another birth certificate in them indicating that Rocky’s husband was her father. There’s the impression that this could be a scam or maybe it’s real. The author deftly weaves the story to allow for both possibilities.

Many characters from the first book appear in the second book; however, doesn't depend too much on what happened in the first book, so it can be read as a stand-alone book. There are plenty of side stories and issues to keep the story interesting. The suspense builds – there were times when I couldn’t stop reading and times when I had to put it down, afraid to know where the author might go next. And I especially liked the chapters written from the dog’s point of view. show less

Rocky's husband Bob was just forty-two when she discovered him lying cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor . . . and Rocky's world changed forever. Quitting her job, chopping off all her hair, she leaves Massachusetts—reinventing her past and taking a job as Animal Control Warden on Peak's Island, a tiny speck off the coast of Maine and a million miles away from everything she's lost. She leaves her career as a psychologist behind, only to find friendship with a woman whose brain show more misfires in the most wonderful way and a young girl who is trying to disappear. Rocky, a quirky and fallible character, discovers the healing process to be agonizingly slow.
But then she meets Lloyd.
A large black Labrador retriever, Lloyd enters Rocky's world with a primitive arrow sticking out of his shoulder. And so begins a remarkable friendship between a wounded woman and a wounded, lovable beast. As the unraveling mystery of Lloyd's accident and missing owner leads Rocky to an archery instructor who draws her in even as she finds every reason to mistrust him, she discovers the life-altering revelation that grief can be transformed . . . and joy does exist in unexpected places. show less

When Rocky’s husband Bob dies suddenly at the age of forty-two, Rocky’s life is blown apart. Faced with the dark force of grief and unable to cope with her life as a psychologist, she flees from her home in Massachusetts to the isolated, wind-blown beaches of Peak’s Island, Maine. Rocky quickly finds a part-time job working as an Animal Control Warden, filling her long days with cat rescues and trapping skunks. Her wish is to bury her painful losses, but it is not long before she meets show more Tess (a retired physical therapist who views the world in a rainbow of colors), Isaiah (her boss who is a former minister), Melissa (a teenager hiding an eating disorder), and Hill (an archery instructor whose life may not be all it seems). These characters become part of Rocky’s everyday life on the island, gently prying her loose from her heartache. But it her encounter with a stray black lab who has been shot with an arrow which will change her life forever.

Jacqueline Sheehan has crafted a novel which explores the depths of grief and loss, and the slow process of recovery. She weaves a story filled with mystery and suspense, but more importantly one which tenderly reveals the magical bond between human and animal. Sheehan’s characters create an authentic presence in the story, making the reader believe in the complex situations of their lives. She successfully gives the dog, Lloyd, a point of view which is at once touching and all too real.

Lost and Found is a book which will resonate with anyone who has suffered a loss or struggled with difficult issues; but it will especially touch the hearts of dog lovers. I gulped down this book in two sittings in less than a 24 hour period. I was simply tugged into the story and unable to let it go.

Highly recommended. show less

Rocky Pelligrino moved to Peaks Island, Maine after the unexpected death of her husband. Reeling from her loss, she traded in her job as a college psychologist for animal control warden on the island. In this sequel to Lost and Found, Rocky is slowly unfreezing emotionally and starting to make connections and open her heart up to life again. She has some wonderful neighbors who care about her, a budding romantic relationship, a thoughtful boss, and of course, Cooper, the big black lab, who show more saved her as surely as she saved him from the arrow that almost killed him.

But recovery is fragile and Rocky is about to get derailed. First the phone rings and a girl claiming to be the biological daughter of Rocky's late husband is on the other end. Then she sees Hill, for whom she has come to care quite a lot, with his estranged wife and she knows that she cannot tolerate a cheater. She is completely emotionally overwhelmed and makes some impulsive choices without thinking things through. She breaks it off with Hill before she even hears his explanation. She buys a house on the island which needs some serious renovation. And she invites the very damaged Natalie, who might or might not be Bob's biological daughter, to move in with her thinking that this girl/woman could be a way for her to preserve a piece of Bob.

The narration of the book rotates among the different characters, including Cooper the dog and the neglected house Rocky's bought. This allows the reader to see the internal motivations of not only Rocky as the main character but also those around her. And it is in being privy to every character's thoughts that the reader realizes, long before Rocky does, that everything is not as it seems and she needs to be on her guard. While this narrative technique gives the reader additional insight into the story, it is initially a bit choppy and the addition of Cooper's narration and the house's narration might come off as too far fetched for some readers. It is frustrating, if understandable, to watch Rocky, who is clearly intelligent, make such foolhardy choices because she is still so close to the clutches of crippling grief.

Rocky's relationships with the other characters seem very tenous in the novel. Perhaps reading the first book would have changed this for this reader, laying a groundwork missing here. Rocky's attachment to Natalie and her horror at hearing how the foster system damaged her beyond belief is much better fleshed out, as it must be since Natalie is a new character in this book. And really, the story here centers around Rocky and Natalie and the truth that stands between them rather than about Rocky and the community of people who have embraced her. There is some pretty strong foreshadowing here but the actual turn of events in the end of the novel are surprising. The tension increases as the story progresses and the island folk become embroiled in a situation not of their making. Some of the resolutions are a little too easy but overall this is a nice read and fans of the first book will enjoy revisiting with Rocky and Cooper and the people of Peaks Island. show less